The Picture game
by hhooppyy
Summary: Another story about a previous meeting between Beckett and Castle. Gift for the Castleland gift-gala on livejournal.


A/N: A story written for k8_rab for Castleland's gift-giving gala (on livejournal)

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><p>It had been a long week and they were getting nowhere on the case they were working. Dead ends just kept popping up in front of them and Kate was beyond frustrated and was starting to take it out on everyone around her—Ryan, Esposito, Karpowski…Castle. Everyone was suffering because of her inability to make any headway on the case. Sitting down at her desk, she laid her head down on her arms hoping that something would pop out at her—something, some detail she had overlooked; something that seemed unimportant at the time; something to get her moving forward again.<p>

Deep in concentration, the thump of something hitting her desk was enough to startle her, although she didn't show it. Slowly raising her head and looking around she spotted the notebook that now lay overtop her case file, picked it up and opened the cover.

"Castle! What is this?"

"Just something I thought might help you relax."

"I don't need to relax, I need to solve this case."

Closing the notebook, she none to gently shoved the notebook into Castle's chest and stood up to stare at the murder board.

Coming up behind her, Castle placed the notebook back in her hands.

"Beckett, trust me. Just read it. What could it hurt? We are not getting anywhere and you need a break. When was the last time you ate? Why don't we head over to Sam's Diner and get something to eat and you can look at this while you eat. Maybe a change of perspective will do you good…will do us all some good."

Without realizing what was happening, Kate found herself being pushed out of the bullpen and into the open elevator.

Knowing that fighting it was useless, and acknowledging that she was in fact hungry, Kate went along with it, vowing to herself that she would be gone no longer than thirty minutes.

-o-O-o-

Sitting down in the red leather clad booth after having placed her order, Kate's hands unconsciously started flipping through pages in the notebook. Deciding to give in, Kate looked at the notebook and noted that each page held a Polaroid picture with writing underneath. Looking closer she saw that the writing were actually little stories about the people in the pictures.

"Castle. What is this?"

Castle smiled gently seeing Kate's attempt to hide the smile that was forming on her face and couldn't help but notice that she was already looking more relaxed.

"I am not sure if you know this, but Alexis and I have a game we play where we make up outrageous stories about people, constantly trying to one up the other. We still play it, but we played it a lot more when she was little. Anyways, on the day that this notebook was filled, I was trying my best to cheer Alexis up—she had broken her arm earlier that week falling from the monkey bars at school—by playing a variation of the game with her. I grabbed our Polaroid camera and everything else we would need and I dragged her with me to the park—insisting, even though she said she didn't want to. I was sure it was going to make her feel better so I insisted and eventually she agreed. Once we got there, we each sat down on a swing and I pulled out the camera and snapped a shot of some little old lady sitting on a bench feeding the birds. Quick as can be, I taped the photo into the notebook and handed it to Alexis along with a pen, telling her to write a story about the lady. Once she realized what we were doing she got all excited and started writing."

Flipping open the notebook to the first page, Castle pointed to the picture. "See, this is the picture. And see! Here is the story she wrote. The little old lady was a mob boss visiting her grandchildren and she was waiting for a message—a message that was coming by carrier pigeon, which is why she was feeding the birds."

"How old was Alexis at this time."

"Six."

"Six? And she was thinking about mob bosses?...and carrier pigeons?"

"Well, to be fair, that was when I was writing 'Storm Warning'—the Derek Storm novel that dealt with the mob. She was bound to pick something up."

"Clearly."

Not waiting for Castle to continue, Kate started flipping pages and reading the stories written beneath the photos. Stopping suddenly, Kate jabbed her finger into one of the pictures and started laughing.

"This guy? This guy right here is a circus clown famous for crawling into those tiny clown cars? Really?"

"Hey! I told you they were supposed to be outrageous stories."

Turning the page, Kate's laughter suddenly stopped as confusion took over her face.

"Wait a minute! That's a squirrel."

"Yes. A secret agent squirrel bent on helping the mastervillain, Mastervillain, take over the world. I mean, who would suspect a squirrel of such deviousness…or working for a villain with such a terrible name?—you would think he would be more discerning than that."

Looking up from the photo, Castle was delighted to see that a full on smile had taken over Kate's face.

"Okay Castle. So you made up a story about a squirrel. That doesn't explain why. I thought the game was to make up stories about people."

"Well, I think Alexis was trying to trick me with that one. I don't think she meant for me to actually write about the squirrel. When she called me on it, I told her that it was our game and we could change the rules as we saw fit. Of course, she said that that wasn't right. The rules were there for a reason and we couldn't change them just because we felt like it. She then handed me another picture and made me write the story for that person since the story about the squirrel didn't count."

"Castle, outlogicked by a six year-old. Sad."

With a playful "tsk, tsk," Kate turned to the last two pictures in the notebook. Looking at those pictures, all the laughter left Kate and she reached out and touched them. Looking up suddenly, she met Castle's gaze.

"Did you know that, in the three hours we sat there snapping photos and writing stories, you were the only person who seemed to notice that we were taking pictures of them that day? You stopped and when we explained what we were doing, you insisted on doing one yourself. So, when we weren't looking you snapped a picture of us, taped it into the notebook, wrote your story and walked away. We didn't even know your name, but I decided that I had to snap a picture of you, so I grabbed the camera and snapped a photo as you turned you head with the sun catching your hair as it flew up around you as you turned as if to check if you had forgotten anything."

No longer listening to what Castle was say, Kate delicately traced over the words written under her picture with her finger, a look of wonder on her face.

_A mystery I am never going to solve._


End file.
